Houdini 19 Pyro!
Pyro Burst generated in Houdini 19
I am loving the new updates made to the Pyro simulations in Houdini 19! The new updates makes it so easy to create and render Pyro explosions directly from the viewport! No need to worry about 3rd party rendering engines and setting up different materials, everything is all within SOPS. Easy, fast, and pretty!
Pyro has never been more fun to generate in Houdini 19!
At around 2:00:00, I start talking about some of the new Pyro features introduced in Houdini 19.
Rendering within the Viewport!
All the renders you see on this page were rendered within the viewport without Mantra, Karma, Redshift, or any other fancy rendering engine. All inside the viewport with the new Pyro Bake Volume node available in Houdini 19! I think this node is an upgrade compared to the old Volume Visualization node from older versions of Houdini. This is a huge simplification compared in the workflow. Now all I need to worry about is setting up the Pyro sim and pick my smoke colors!
Houdini 19 now comes with ready made Pyro simulation setups that look pretty decent right out of the box! All you have to do is hit tab and type, “Pyro Configure” to see a list of ready made Pyro simulations that can be rendered all within the Viewport!
Pyro Shockwave generated in Houdini 19
Pyro Shockwave
This pyro shockwave setup creates the popular mushroom explosions seen in a lot of blockbuster movies. This is probably best suited to be used for things exploding on the ground.
Pyro Aerial Explosion generated in Houdini 19
Pyro Aerial Explosion
This seems like best suited for explosions in mid-air with high moving speed. The explosion starts with a trail of smoke that quickly leads up to a larger explosion. The kickstarting trail of smoke suggests that it’s following a high speed object like a plane.
Gas Axis Force (New force node added in Houdini 19)
A newly added force to manipulate pyro simulations is the Gas Axis Force. It’s a procedural vector field that spins on an axis like a turbine in a cylinder with falloff parameters. This is handy for things like high powered fans flowing air around like ventilation systems or things like steam powered engines.
On the left, you’ll see the original pyro sim without the use of the Gas Axis Force and on the right, you can see a comparison of the same pyro sim with the Gas Axis Force involved.
